Catching Up
by bluepleduple
Summary: This is my headcannon of a conversation between Percy and Annabeth before the pegasi stables. It relies on the anxieties they're feeling over finally seeing each other again, and dealing with them in their own special way.


One shot -

Mark of Athena fanfiction - Heroes of Olympus

The reunion

Percy's POV

It was Percy's first night on the argo II, and he had trouble sleeping. There was so much to think about. So many emotions swimming around in his head, and unfortunately, this was not the kind of swimming he could control. He didn't know whether to be stressed about mother earth, angry at Hera, or guilty about Annabeth. Annabeth… Of course he was immeasurably happy to see her, seeing her face for the first time in months was almost worth the torture that happened to get to that point. Almost. But he couldn't help but feel guilty. He had left Annabeth again, just like Ogygia 2 years ago. Of course he didn't have a say in the matter, but still, how could he just say 'sorry person who I care most about in this world, I may have emotionally scarred you for life, but shall we kiss and forget about everything?'

He decided he needed some fresh air and headed above deck. As he passed Annabeth's room he paused. He could have easily gone in, woken her up, and had an awkward conversation about the million different things they needed to talk about, but he decided he needed to clear his head before they did.

As he broke to the surface of the ship, he was greeted by a magnificent array of stars and constellations across the skies accompanied by a cool sea breeze which seemed to blow the weight of the world off his shoulders. It was calming. He sat and dangled his legs off the edge of the ship and stared down into the sea. They were about 300 feet above sea level, following the coast. He probably could have sat there for hours listening to the calming sounds of air and ocean travel, but was interrupted by a voice. The voice. The most important voice of the world.

'Hey' said Annabeth sitting down next to him

'Hey' replied Percy.

Where should he start? There were a million things he wanted, no, a million things he needed to say to her. Of course he decided to pick the worst one.

'I would've got you but… I didn't wanna wake you and… I thought it might be…' he trailed off. He knew he was never a poet, but surely he could do better than this. This was his girlfriend. His best friend. She was everything to him, why couldn't he just say it?

'Thought it might be weird?' Annabeth sounded disappointed, and Percy couldn't blame her. He started thinking about how he would hate to be his own boyfriend, before he realised his ADHD was getting the better of him.

'Percy' she said

'Its okay'

Percy didn't know how to respond. Was it really okay? He had to say something. Anything.

But before he could, Annabeth sighed.

'If you want I can go back to my room'

She started to move away from him. Percy's brain immediately kicked into action. What was he doing? Why was he being such an idiot? She probably felt the exact same way he did. Oh gods, he thought, it must be even worse for her, she didn't know about anything that happened to him in the last 8 months. He knew if the roles were reversed, he would have lost his mind.

'Annabeth… i'm so sorry' was all he could muster.

'About everything'

She moved back close to him, a small, reassuring smile appearing on her face.

'Percy… I already told you it's okay'

Percy grabbed her hand and pointed to the sky, specifically to a constellation of a young girl with a bow.

'Zoe knew why I really went to rescue Artemis.' he told her

'I couldn't bare the fact that you were missing, so I had to...I had to do something' he said, trying to relate to her own recent struggle.

Tears welled in Annabeth's eyes, which made Percy start to cry, which he hated.

'No please' he said half crying, half chuckling

'Don't make my cry Annabeth, it'll ruin my rep'

'Oh shut up, seaweed brain' she said tears flowing down her eyes as she pulled him into an embrace that they both wished would never end.

'I missed you so much' she said in a pained voice

Percy started sobbing and laughing at the same time at the sadness of what she was saying, and the ridiculousness that they were holding onto each other like babies. He guessed Annabeth realised the same thing too because she also started laugh-crying. They held onto each other in their breakdown.

'W-w-when I woke up' Percy said stammering, then laughing at the fact he couldn't even speak properly

'Oh god, wh- why do you do this to me wise girl?' he said chuckling, before composing himself with a sniffle.

'When I woke up, I forgot everything.' He felt Annabeth tense, and that's when it hit him. She thought he forgot about her. All those months she was thinking about him everyday, and she thought that he didn't even know who she was. Percy looked her dead in her eyes.

'All I remembered was you' he said

'That I needed to find you. That I l-love you.' Percy choked up as he said the last words, as he felt emotions that he didn't even realise he'd been capable of feeling. He felt sick but in all the right ways. Annabeth responded by meeting his lips with a passionate kiss that made the entire sea feel like a drop of water, and for a moment, the two of them forgot about everything. The tears had stopped by this point, but the remnants had been smeared on eachothers faces, making them both look like a total mess.

She whispered in his ear, 'I love you Percy. I've never been more sure of anything. Lets not do anything like this ever again.'

Percy's heart was on fire. When did his life become so good? Okay yeah, he thought, he was on a ship sailing to his inevitable doom, but in Annabeth's arms, his life was perfect.

'Agreed.' Percy replied.

'I don't know how i'll ever be apart from you again' he continued, his lips inches away from hers.

'Never again' said Annabeth

'Never again' confirmed Percy

They leaned in for another kiss, but before their lips met, Percy jerked back in shock as if he just remembered something horrific.

'Oh gods' he said in a voice full of panic.

'Hows Grover? Tyson? My mom?' said Percy with a miserable look on his face. He sounded more sad than stressed. Life was never easy for a half blood, he guessed. He had his entire life ripped away from him. At least he had Annabeth with him.

Annabeth grabbed his hands

'Lets go below deck' she said shivering as the breeze turned colder.

'We have got a lot to talk about'

She took his hand and led him down to the pegasi stables. On that night, there were no stupid quests, no demons, gods or monsters, no rules or responsibilities. It was just Annabeth and Percy together. On that night, everything was alright.


End file.
